Insights

Sankaet Pathak is one of my favorite people to talk to about innovation in financial services. The company he founded, SynapseFI, plays an important role in enabling collaboration between banks and financial technology startups. I came away from this recent conversation with a deeper understanding of the ethical risks posed by AI, insights into behavioral data science, and cautious optimism that we can use these tools and technology to create the financial world we want to live in. DM: What...

I’ve long appreciated Israel’s contributions to fintech from afar, but during my first trip to the “Startup Nation” I was amazed by the maturity of its startup ecosystem. I was part of “FinTech and Falafel,” a delegation of investors sponsored by The Israel Economic Mission to foster collaboration between USA/Canada and Israel. Some of my observations: Israel takes government R&D initiatives to a whole other level. Over the last decade, the government R&D spend has been roughly equal to 4%...

We’re delighted to announce a new partner has joined Propel to help lead our international fund and an essential team member has earned a promotion! Rohit Bodas will take Propel’s mission to a global scale, building companies that transform financial services worldwide. In his role as international partner he’ll be considering and leading investments in Europe, Latin America, Israel, Canada, and Asia, among other possible regions. Prior to Propel, Rohit helped launched American Express Ventures, where he invested in a wide range...

Small to medium-size businesses have traditionally lacked the tools and data to effectively manage travel and expenses. To help change that we are excited to announce Propel Venture Partners’ investment in TravelBank, an expense and travel platform that aligns incentives between employers and employees. Propel joins DCM and Danhua as new investors in the Series B round, alongside existing investors NEA and Accel. Typically SMBs start with Excel for expense management and after enough frustration pay for a number of...

Bitcoin and Ethereum prices have risen steeply this year, but the funding levels of initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been even more dramatic. Everyday seems to reach new highs: Since June 2017, Bancor raised $153M, EOS raised $185M, and then Tezos hit $232M. As of today, Filecoin has raised close to $200M in its public token sale with several days left in the process. [caption id="attachment_718" align="alignnone" width="576"] Chart Credit: Coindesk[/caption] An ICO combines elements from traditional fundraising methods—public...

Today we are excited to announce Propel’s investment in EaseCentral, a cloud-based benefits enrollment platform built for insurance brokers and employers. EaseCentral turns every broker into a supercharged digital broker. Even the smallest agency will be able to bring its expertise to a digital platform with accurate, up-to-date information, making open enrollment periods far less stressful for benefits managers and employees. The EaseCentral team lead by founders David Reid and Courtney Guertin have worked closely with leading insurance brokers and more...

As attitudes around financial technology have shifted from “disruption” to “partnerships,” we here at Propel have had a front-row seat. We’re excited about bank and startup collaboration and we’ve also seen the challenges both sides face. When banks and startups better understand the culture and pragmatic concerns of the other, we’ll see a higher percentage of courtships result in real collaboration, bringing products and services to market that will ultimately result in better user experiences for bank customers. Many hurdles...

Why hasn’t someone already done this? That question came up more than once as entrepreneurs took the mic at the start of our first annual gathering of startup leaders and our BBVA partners in Sausalito this April. The whirlwind introductions touched on: What would it mean to have a portable, universal, digital ID? How can employers offer more versatile benefits? What are the possibilities for AI—and what’s already here? We took a deep dive into the process...

"We achieved a lot when we left the Beltway, refocused and returned to our business plans and our customers.” Ryan Gilbert writes about the industry effort that went into “A Framework for FinTech,” a paper released in the final days of the Obama administration. Read his American Banker piece here.

The employer-sponsored retirement plans market grew from $4.4 trillion in 2014 to over $6 trillion by 2016. Yet, small businesses struggle to offer retirement plans because they are expensive and hard to administer. Of companies with fewer than 100 employees, only 45% had 401(k) plans in 2015. Even when employers offer retirement plans, they can’t force employees to participate or guarantee they will. According to the Department of Labor, nearly one-third of eligible workers don’t participate in their employer’s sponsored...

Subscribe to our newsletter and stay up to date on the latest in the fintech universe.